How I found myself through music | Anika Paulson

Translator: 潘 可儿 Reviewer: Sylvia He

The philosopher Plato once said,

哲學家柏拉圖曾經講過

"Music gives a soul to the universe,

「音樂賦予宇宙以靈魂，

wings to the mind,

心以羽翼，

flight to the imagination

想像以飛翔，

and life to everything."

生活以一切。」

Music has always been a big part of my life.

音樂總係我哋生活嘅一大部份

To create and to perform music

創作同表演音樂

connects you to people countries and lifetimes away.

聯結起不同國度同命運嘅人

It connects you to the people you're playing with,

聯結起你同你嘅玩伴

to your audience

你嘅觀眾

and to yourself.

同你自己

When I'm happy, when I'm sad,

每當我開心、悲傷

when I'm bored, when I'm stressed,

無聊，或者壓力大

I listen to and I create music.

我都會聽同創作音樂

When I was younger, I played piano;

細個時，我彈鋼琴

later, I took up guitar.

長大啲，我彈吉他

And as I started high school,

返高中嗰時

music became a part of my identity.

音樂就成為咗我命定之事

I was in every band,

每個樂隊都有我份

I was involved with every musical fine arts event.

每場音樂活動都有我嘅身影

Music surrounded me.

音樂包圍著我

It made me who I was,

令我成為自己

and it gave me a place to belong.

畀咗我歸屬

Now, I've always had this thing with rhythms.

我曾經做咩都好有節奏

I remember being young,

我記得細個時

I would walk down the hallways of my school

喺學校走廊度行時

and I would tap rhythms to myself on my leg with my hands,

我會摞手喺大骳度打節拍

or tapping my teeth.

呢個係緊張嘅習慣

It was a nervous habit,

and I was always nervous.

而我成日都好緊張

I think I liked the repetition of the rhythm --

我覺得我鍾意節奏嘅重複

it was calming.

佢會令我平靜

Then in high school,

讀高中嗰時

I started music theory,

我開始上樂理課

and it was the best class I've ever taken.

我覺得佢係我上過嘅最好嘅課

We were learning about music --

就同理論課、歷史課咁

things I didn't know, like theory and history.

我哋學一點我唔知係咩嘅嘢

It was a class where we basically just listened to a song,

上課我哋基本上只係聽歌

talked about what it meant to us

討論歌曲對我哋嘅意義

and analyzed it,

再分析

and figured out what made it tick.

搵到呢首歌好聽嘅原因

Every Wednesday, we did something called "rhythmic dictation,"

每週三，我哋就會做「節奏聽寫」

and I was pretty good at it.

而我就做得好好

Our teacher would give us an amount of measures

我哋老師會畀我哋幾條樂譜線

and a time signature,

一個節拍符號

and then he would speak a rhythm to us

之後佢就會講一段節奏

and we would have to write it down with the proper rests and notes.

我哋就要用合適嘅記號記低

Like this:

就好似咁：

ta ta tuck-a tuck-a ta,

ta ta tuck-a tuck-a ta

ta tuck-a-tuck-a-tuck-a, tuck-a.

ta tuck-a-tuck-a-tuck-a, tuck-a

And I loved it.

我好鍾意咁

The simplicity of the rhythm --

節奏嘅簡單

a basic two- to four- measure line --

基本嘅兩到四條樂譜線

and yet each of them almost told a story,

幾乎一切都喺度講緊故仔

like they had so much potential,

就好似有好多可能性咁

and all you had to do was add a melody.

你再加上一段旋律就得喇

(Guitar)

（吉他聲）

Rhythms set a foundation for melodies and harmonies to play on top of.

節奏係旋律同音韻和諧嘅基礎

It gives structure and stability.

佢賦予咗結構同穩定

Now, music has these parts --

音樂由三部份組成——

rhythm, melody and harmony --

節奏、旋律同和諧性

just like our lives.

就好似我哋嘅生活咁

Where music has rhythm,

音樂有節奏

we have routines and habits --

我哋有日常生活同習慣

things that help us to remember what to do and to stay on track,

我哋知道要做啲咩維持正常生活

and to just keep going.

之後繼續咁生活

And you may not notice it,

你可能冇注意到

but it's always there.

但事實確實係咁

(Guitar)

（吉他聲）

And it may seem simple,

等我嚟講得簡單啲

it may seem dull by itself,

生活本身似乎好無聊

but it gives tempo and heartbeat.

但係帶嚟咗節拍、心跳

And then things in your life add on to it,

再加埋你生活中嘅事

giving texture --

加啲質感

that's your friends and your family,

家人朋友

and anything that creates a harmonic structure in your life

一切令到你生活和諧嘅嘢

and in your song,

而喺你嘅歌裏面

like harmonies,

就係和聲

cadences

抑揚頓挫

and anything that makes it polyphonic.

一切多音調嘅因素

And they create beautiful chords and patterns.

就創造咗優美嘅和絃同節奏

(Guitar)

（吉他聲）

And then there's you.

你就喺度

You play on top of everything else,

你喺一切之上

on top of the rhythms and the beat

控制韻律節奏

because you're the melody.

因為你就係旋律本身

And things may change and develop,

事物可能會改變、發展

but no matter what we do,

但係無論我哋做咩

we're still the same people.

我哋本身都冇變到

Throughout a song melodies develop,

就好似雖然旋律發生咗改變

but it's still the same song.

首歌都仲係嗰首歌

No matter what you do,

無論你做咩

the rhythms are still there:

節奏都伴隨著你

the tempo and the heartbeat ...

仲有節拍同心跳

until I left,

我畢業之後

and I went to college

去咗大學

and everything disappeared.

一切都消失咗

When I first arrived at university,

當我啱到大學嗰時

I felt lost.

我覺得好迷茫

And don't get me wrong -- sometimes I loved it and it was great,

雖然有時我都幾鍾意大學生活嘅

but other times,

但有時

I felt like I had been left alone

我覺得自己好似被遺棄咗

to fend for myself.

只能夠自己照顧自己

It's like I had been taken out of my natural environment,

就好似我從熟悉嘅環境

and put somewhere new,

被流放到陌生環境

where the rhythms and the harmonies

冇節奏、冇和聲

and the form had gone away,

原來嘅生活不復返

and it was just me --

剩低我自己

(Guitar)

（吉他聲）

silence and my melody.

寂靜，同自己嘅旋律

And even that began to waver,

但呢一切都開始動搖

because I didn't know what I was doing.

因為我唔知道自己喺度做緊咩

I didn't have any chords to structure myself,

我冇任何自己嘅和絃

or a rhythm

或者節奏

or a beat to know the tempo.

或者感知節拍嘅拍打

(Guitar)

（吉他聲）

And then I began to hear all these other sounds.

之後我開始聽其他聲音

(Guitar)

（吉他聲）

And they were off-time

異常

and off-key.

跑調嘅音樂

And the more I was around them,

而我聽得越多

the more my melody started to sound like theirs.

我嘅旋律就越似佢哋

And slowly I began to lose myself,

逐漸，我開始迷失自我

like I was being washed away.

就好似我被海水沖走咗

But then the next moment --

之後下一刻

(Guitar)

（吉他聲）

I could hear it.

我可以聽到

And I could feel it.

我感受得到

And it was me.

呢個就係我

And I was here.

我就喺度

And it was different,

我與眾不同

but not worse off.

我冇頹廢

Just changed a little.

只不過發生咗啲改變

Music is my way of coping with the changes in my life.

我通過音樂嚟處理生活中嘅變化

There's a beautiful connection between music and life.

音樂同生活之間有種美妙嘅聯繫

It can bind us to reality

既可以通向現實

at the same time it allows us to escape it.

同時又可以逃離現實

Music is something that lives inside of you.

音樂係你嘅一部份

You create it and you're created by it.

你同音樂相輔相成

Our lives are not only conducted by music,

音樂唔單止只指揮我哋嘅生活

they're also composed of it.

而且仲「創作」埋

So this may seem like a bit of a stretch,

咁講好似有啲誇張

but hear me out:

但係聽我講

music is a fundamental part of what we are

音樂係我哋

and of everything around us.

同我哋周圍一切嘅基本

Now, music is my passion,

音樂畀咗我激情

but physics also used to be an interest of mine.

而物理曾經都係我嘅興趣

And the more I learned,

我學得越多

the more I saw connections between the two --

就發現越多佢哋之間嘅聯繫

especially regarding string theory.

特別係弦理論

I know this is only one of many theories,

我知道呢個只係眾多物理理論中嘅一個

but it spoke to me.

但係佢話畀我知

So, one aspect of string theory, at its simplest form, is this:

弦理論嘅一方面，最簡單嘅方式 係呢個：

matter is made up of atoms,

物質由原子組成

which are made up of protons and neutrons and electrons,

原子由質子、中子同電子組成

which are made up of quark.

而佢哋又由誇克組成

And here's where the string part comes in.

「弦理論」就係咁嚟噶喇

This quark is supposedly made up of little coiled strings,

理論認為誇克係由細連續串組成

and it's the vibrations of these strings that make everything what it is.

而呢啲連續串嘅震動就形成咗一切事物

Michio Kaku once explained this

加來 道雄 曾經喺一個

in a lecture called, "The Universe in a Nutshell,"

叫做「果殼中嘅宇宙」

where he says,

嘅講座中講過

"String theory is the simple idea

「弦理論係最簡單嘅

that the four forces of the universe --

宇宙嘅四種力

gravity, the electromagnetic force, and the two strong forces --

萬有引力、電磁力 強相互力、弱相互力

can be viewed as music.

都可以睇成音樂

The music of tiny little rubber bands."

細細個橡筋演奏嘅音樂」

In this lecture, he goes on to explain physics

喺講座度，佢進一步解釋咗

as the laws of harmony between these strings;

物理就係呢啲「弦」嘅和諧法則

chemistry, as the melodies you can play on these strings;

而化學，就好似呢啲「弦」嘅旋律

and he states that the universe is a "symphony of strings."

宇宙，就係「弦嘅交響樂」

These strings dictate the universe;

呢啲「弦」支配著宇宙

they make up everything we see and everything we know.

組成一切我哋所見所知嘅嘢

They're musical notes,

佢哋係音符

but they make us what we are and they hold us together.

但又創造、連接我哋

So you see,

正如你所見

everything is music.

音樂無處不在

(Guitar)

（吉他聲）

When I look at the world,

當我望向世界

I see music all around us.

我見到音樂就喺我哋身邊

When I look at myself,

當我望向我自己

I see music.

我見到音樂

And my life has been defined by music.

而我嘅生活都被音樂定義咗

I found myself through music.

我通過音樂搵到自我

Music is everywhere,

音樂

and it is in everything.

無處不在

And it changes and it builds

音樂會變化

and it diminishes.

增長或減少

But it's always there,

但佢一直喺度

supporting us,

支持著我哋

connecting us to each other

將我哋之間聯結起嚟

and showing us the beauty of the universe.

畀我哋睇宇宙嘅美麗

So if you ever feel lost,

所以如果你覺得迷茫

stop and listen for your song.

就停低聽你自己嘅音樂

Thank you.

多謝

(Applause)

（掌聲）